A typical motor vehicle steering column includes a steering shaft rotatably supported on a stationary structural housing of the steering column, a steering hand wheel, and an attachment which rigidly couples the steering shaft and the steering hand wheel for unitary rotation about a longitudinal centerline of the steering shaft. The attachment commonly includes a cone-shaped outside shoulder on the steering shaft, a cone-shaped inside shoulder in a bore in a hub of the steering hand wheel, and a retaining nut on the steering shaft outboard of the hub. Screw threads on the retaining nut and on the steering shaft convert rotation of the retaining nut into linear thrust which forces the cone-shaped inside and outside shoulders together in a locking taper fit. In some applications, the integrity of the locking taper fit is enhanced by longitudinal outside spline teeth on the steering shaft in mesh with longitudinal inside spline teeth in the bore in the hub of the steering hand wheel. Two of the longitudinal inside spline teeth on the hub are merged into a double-wide "blocked tooth" which meshes with a correspondingly double-wide blocked-tooth groove on the steering shaft to assure a predetermined angular position of the steering hand wheel on the steering shaft. Aligning the blocked tooth with the blocked tooth groove during installation of the steering hand wheel on the steering shaft is a trial and error process slowed down and made more difficult by false partial engagements between the inside and the outside spline teeth.